The packaging of a music CD is expected to
persuade consumers of the desirability of the music recorded,
and to purchase it. What is printed on the CD and its packaging
must communicate a variety of information.

Determine the shape and dimensions of a CD's printing area. These are referred to in the specifications in the assignments
which follow.

Specifications for the
design of each CD:

Because every CD must be exactly the same size and shape,
there are rules applied to the size and shape of the area on
them which can be printed.

1 - The design printed on any CD must be limited to within
two perfectly circular areas:

A - The outer edge of printable area is a circle with
a 116 mm diameter.

B - The stacking ring near the center of the CD, can
have no ink printed on it.

What is the stacking ring? It is a banded
protrusion jutting out (as a ring) on the bottom or non-printing
side of the disc. This permits discs to be stacked on top of
one another without harming the data field. The other side (printing
side) of the disc leaves a very narrow gutter in the surface
of the disc. The disc cannot have ink in this gutter. To avoid
that, we must void that area of all ink.

C - The inner edge of the printable area is a circle
with a 20 mm diameter.

2 -
The "Compact Disc Digital Audio" symbol assures the
consumer that compact disc standards have been followed in the
manufacture of the disc. This symbol is displayed to the right.
Copy this image
to your folder on the phs-itc server for this project.

3 - The music publishing company's logo, name, copyright statement,
location, and catalogue number must appear.

4 - The name of the recording artist and the title of the
album must be prominent texts.

5 - The playlist -- the list of separately recorded pieces
of music -- must include titles, their order and duration (minutes:seconds).

CDs can be packaged in any of a wide variety of containers,
but most popular by far is the "crystal box." Because
every crystal box can contain a sheet of paper for the front
of the case, and another for the back, and each of these must
be a certain size and shape.

FRONT Cover:

1 - The paper for the front cover must be 120 mm wide and
120 mm high.

2 - The music publishing company's logo, name, copyright statement,
location, and catalogue number must appear. You may use any of
the recording company logos posted on this page.

3 - The name of the recording artist and the title of the
album must be prominent texts.

4 - The "Compact Disc Digital Audio" symbol assures
the consumer that compact disc standards have been followed in
the manufacture of the disc. This can be placed on the back cover
if it is not on the front.

BACK Cover:

1 - The paper for the back cover must be 135 mm wide and 120
mm high.

1 - The music publishing company's logo, name, copyright statement,
location, and catalogue number must appear.

2 - The name of the recording artist and the title of the
album.

3 - The playlist -- the list of separately recorded pieces
of music -- must include titles, their order and duration (minutes:seconds).

4 - The bar code. This provides accurate inventory and pricing
controls. Use one of the barcodes posted below.

Your assignment is to design the CD and its packaging
for each of two groups of musicians:

the Aproject -- a popular
band

the Bproject -- a symphony
orchestra

Each set of designs must satisfy
a set of specifications.

Some are listed above, and some
are listed below.

Each project has its own deadline.

A.
. . . . .The first set of designs:

For up to 150 points:

You are designing the first set of designs for a CD, and its
packaging (the front and back cover) for an American band that
appeals to a broad range of teenagers.

This popular band wishes to project an image of wild, exciting
intensity, and encourages you to take the design to the limit.
Their agents and the record company require that the group's
CD and CD packaging will not offend any adults. Your goal is
to please both parties.

Choose from the following names for the group (or obtain an okay to use a name of your own):

KMO

Froze

Radio Boys

Tesla Project

Cycle Queen

Mullholland

Force of Naytcher

Proto-Punk

Foo Fyters

Owasis

Jurassic 6

Don the Automator

Moss Def

Black Jack Jonson

Groov Armada

Dead Woodstock

Robobuddha

The Strikes

TV Birdman

The Vynes

Dryve-In

Mars Revolt

Choose from the following titles for the album (or obtain an okay to use a title of your own):

Night Vision

Scandal

Out of the Way

Fly By Night

Steep Road

Crow's Nest

The playlist:

1 Like humans (4:20)

2 Walk on water (3:40)

3 Here In Love (2:35)

4 Broken things (7:55)

5 Superman (3:26)

6 Moments After You've Gone (5:08)

7 Muddy Blues (2:30)

8 Roaring waters(1:54)

9 No One Else (2:39)

10 Low Tide (4:12)

11 Paradise (3:37)

The design on the CD must include a photograph that occupies
the entire printable area. All lettering must be legible, so
be careful to make it contrast strongly with the area of the
photo where it is placed.

The packaging for the CD must include an accordian-folded
insert that includes the cover. It has two sides for each of
five panels (they are like pages -- a total of ten of them).
This insert must have lots of pictures, a list of the members
of the band, the text of the songs "Greeked," and whatever
else you decide to include.

Step-by-Step Designing the
CD

1 - Find or create a photograph that you wish to use as the
background for your CD design. This photo should be as large or
larger than a CD so that you can resize it without losing resolution.
Save this photo as a file in your name folder on the phs-itc server.

2 - Open your connection to the phs-itc server. Open Assignments
> Graphic Design and open your own name folder. Drag the folder
"Designing CDs" from the Graphic Design folder into
your name folder to make a copy of it there.

2 - Open Adobe Illustrator. Choose File > Open > Users
> [your year] > [your name folder] > Designing CDs >
cdtemplate.eps. This file provides you with a template for the
areas in which to place your CD's design -- the edges of each
of three circular areas have been masked. A photograph has been
placed behind these masking layers in order to isolate the areas
that can be printed for a CD's design. You will replace this photo
with your own photo, and then add the text and other images you
wish to place in your own design. Using a second template file,
you will create another layer on which you will create the text
with which to label your CD.

3 - Looking at "cdtemplate.eps", in the Layers palette,
select the layer "the photo". Select the Selection Tool
(black arrow) place it on a part of the photograph and click to
select the sushi photograph. Press delete on the keyboard.

4 - Choose File > Place. Navigate to the location of the
photo you wish to place. Select that file and click on the Place
button.

5 - Using the Selection Tool (black arrow), select your photo,
and arrange it so that your photo is centered behind the white
masking shapes. To make your photo larger or smaller, click twice
on the Scale Tool (below the Pencil Tool). In the Scale window
that appears, enter a number in the Uniform Scale box (over 100%
for larger, and under 100% for smaller). Click OK. Use the Selection
Tool to move your photo into final position. Choose File >
Save As and change the title of the file to [yourname].cdA.

Adding Labeling Text

1 - In Illustrator, choose File > Open > Users > [your
year] > [your name folder] > Designing CDs > cdlabel.eps.
This file provides you with a template for a layer in which to
place the texts for your CD's design. Once you have added all
of those texts, you will copy them and past them onto the "Labeling"
layer of the cdA file you've been working on.

2 - You will start the labeling of the CD with texts that will
follow the curve of circles centered on the center of the CD.
Select the Ellipse Tool (above the Paintbrush Tool). Click on
the gray area of the CD. Set sizes for a circle that will serve
as the path for the first line of text. (Try a 100 mm diameter
circle to see if that size will be satisfactory.) Click OK. Make
both the stroke and the fill transparent. Use the Selection Tool
to center the circle on the design. Select the Path Type Tool
(click-drag on the Type Tool to select it) and place the cross-hairs
of this tool on one of the little blocks on the circle you just
drew, and click. Then type the line of text you wish to place
on this curving path. (See specifications above to decide on what
text to place here.) Select this text to adjust its font, size,
color, and style. Repeat these instructions for other lines of
text you'll place on circular paths of larger or smaller sizes.

3 - When you have finished composing the text you wish to place
on your CD design, use the Selection tool to select the gray background,
and remove it using the Delete key. Select the path of a line
of text. Holding down the Shift key, click on each of the other
paths of text, Apple-G to group the lines, and Apple-C to copy
them all.

4 - Choose Window > cdA, and Apple-V to paste the text you
created in the labeling template. Use the Selection Tool to center
the text you have just pasted.

Designing the CD Cover /
Booklet

The packaging for the CD must include an accordian-folded
booklet that includes the cover. It has two sides for each of
five 120 x 120 mm pages (a total of ten pages).
This booklet must have:

lots of pictures

a list of the members of the band

the text of at least five songs "Greeked" -- meaning
printed with dummy text -- called Greeking because graphic designers
often use a foreign-sounding text that starts "lorem
ipsum . . . ":

Choose File > New and (for a horizontally opening pamphlet)
set the size of the canvas's width to 600 mm (5 x 120 mm) and
the height to 120 mm. Name this document "[last name].cdAcoverI.[period#]"
Click OK.

Choose View > Hide Page Tiling.

Choose View > Show Rulers. You will see millimeter measurement
rulers along the top and left sides. Notice that the left edge
of your canvas's area matches the 190 mm mark along the top of
the screen. The right edge of the first 120 mm portion of this
sheet will be at the 70 mm mark. In order to place lines on the
canvas that will show you where the folds will be separating
the five pages to each side of this document, you should use
the ruler to the left to make a vertical rule at this and three
other places, each 120 mm apart. Place your cursor on the ruler
to the left, hold down the mouse, and drag the a copy of the
vertical rule to the the 70 mm mark on the ruler at the top.
This line is visible to you, but will not be printed as a line.
The next such ruler line, 120 mm farther to the right will be
at the 50 mm mark (watch that you use the one to the right of
the 0 mark). Place another vertical ruler line at 170 and 290
mm.

Design the cover in either the first or last of the five
pages on this canvas. Make the rest of the pages satisfy the
specifications listed above for the booklet. Create another file
much like this one on which to design the five pages of the booklet
that will be printed on the other side of this paper.

Deadline May 13. For up to 150 points,
submit a duplicate of each of your fourAproject files into Users > Assignments >
Graphic Design > drop-box:

The CD itself must be titled[last name].CDA.[period]

The first of two sides of the CD cover/booklet must
be titled[last name].cdAcoverI.[period]

The second side of the CD cover/booklet must be titled[last name].cdAcoverII.[period]

The back of the CD cover/booklet must be titled [last name].cdAback.[period]

One-fifth
of the points you can earn are for turning this assignment in
by its deadline.

B. . . . . .The second set of designs:

You are designing the second set of designs for a CD, and
its packaging (the front and back cover) for an small symphony
orchestra.

The orchestra wishes to project an image of conservative charm,
and encourages you to evoke traditional values. Their agents
and the record company require that the orchestra's CD and CD
packaging will not offend anyone. Your goal is to please them.

For up to 75 points:

Specifications for the
design of project B's CD:

1 - Begin by finding a picture that will become the visual
theme of your designs. This will be a CD with music composed
by Ludwig von Beethoven, find and download an image of a picture
painted during the time Beethoven was working 1800-1825. Here
are links to five of the great museums in the world:

3 - Position one of the three versions of the "Compact
Disc Digital Audio" symbol on the disc. Copy
this image to your folder on the phs-itc server for this project.
Besides the
black-on-white version to the right, there are two other versions
-- black-on-transparent and white-on-transparent
-- available in the folder at phs-itc > Users > Assignments
> Graphic Design > Designing CDs. This symbol must be legible,
but subtle.

4 - The music publishing company's logo, name, copyright statement,
location, and catalogue
number must appear, typed on a circular path.

5 - The name of the orchestra -- "The Pinnacle Symphony
Orchestra" -- and the title of the album -- "Beethoven's
Fifth and Ninth Symphonies" -- must be prominent in beautifully
designed type, produced either in PhotoShop or in Illustrator.

6 - The playlist -- the list of separately recorded pieces
of music -- must include titles, their order and duration (minutes:seconds):

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Opus 67

1 Adagio. Allegro vivace (11:36)

2 Andante con moto (10:16)

3 Allegro (5:26)

4 Allegro ma non troppo (9:04)

Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Opus 125

1 Allegro ma non troppo (15:53)

2 Molto vivace (10:30)

3 Adagio molto e cantabile (14:53)

4 Presto (6:36)

5 Allegro assai (18:18)

7 - The CD file itself must be titled when submitted
as [last name].cdB.[period]

Specifications for the
design of project B's packaging:

FRONT Cover:

1 - In Illustrator, the canvas for the front cover must be
120 mm wide and 120 mm high. There will be no booklet, and it
will be printed on only one side, so only one file for the cover
will be needed.

ArtLex has thousands of articles about art terms used
in art production, art criticism, art history, aesthetics, and
art education. I created ArtLex for my students, to help
them increase their understanding of art concepts, readings, writings,
and conversations. Some of the hyperlinks found on the pages about
my elementary art program will take you to ArtLex articles
about terms on these pages.

I have taught art at three elementary schools
in the Paradise Valley Unified School district (northeastern Phoenix
and north Scottsdale) from 1986-. I began publishing information
about my classes on the Web in 1995. I taught at Pinnacle High
School during the 2001-2002 school year, and posted these lessons
that year. I will maintain them as time permits.